Broadway Tickets

August: Osage County

(August: Osage County at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway. Photo: me)

In a Broadway season that is particularly heavy in straight plays, Tracy Letts' drama August: Osage County, has been causing quite a stir. Pretty deservedly so, I’d say, after seeing it on Sunday. Transferred to Broadway from Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, where Letts is a member of the company, I thought the show was superbly acted and directed (by Anna D. Shapiro), making the three and a half hour glimpse into the dysfunctional Weston family’s lives whiz by, with the audience laughing quite a bit along the way. It’s very satisfying as a dramatic production, with a large cast, large set and the play written with ample opportunity for showy acting.

In August: Osage County, the extended Weston family gathers at their mother’s home just outside Pawhuska, Oklahoma after Beverly Weston, the family patriarch, disappears and is then found dead several days later, having jumped into a nearby lake. Violet (Deanna Dunagan), the matriarch, is addicted to pills. Her mood swings drastically between a likeable, congenial self and a caustic, rabble-rousing other personality who...

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